As part of the 2026 edition of the PHI Montréal residency, PHI is pleased to welcome Eva Quintas, as well as Spoonful of Dirt, a collective formed by Andrea Williamson and Nina Pariser. After several months of meetings, workshops, and exchanges, their respective projects are now entering a meaningful phase. Throughout the month of June, the public is invited to discover the emerging forms of their research and to contribute to them through this exhibition, as well as during a series of free public activities.
While distinct in their approaches, the works presented here converge around shared concerns: questioning the environments we inhabit and shape, assessing the effects of human constructions on a diversity of living beings, and dreaming up futures in which more equitable modes of organization might emerge.
Spoonful of Dirt’s work focuses on animal species once present on the island of Tiotià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, now displaced by the intensification of human activity. Through clay and watercolor representations created during participatory workshops, the silhouettes of these animals reappear as spectral presences, inviting us to rethink the conditions for interspecies coexistence.
For her part, Eva Quintas turns her attention to the Havre district and its residents in a poetic inquiry that brings together photographs and videos, testimonies and texts. At a time when issues related to access to our waterways are taking on increasing importance across the province, her work highlights a paradox: the notable absence of the St. Lawrence River in the stories of the people she met in the Havre, even as a moment of speculative intensification unfolds in this area.
In resonance with each other, these projects reveal different ways of inhabiting, perceiving, and relating to the territories we share, while opening onto the imagination of new configurations and modes of existence.